Nine bodies have been recovered from the rubble of Nairobi’s Westgate shopping
centre, as new CCTV footage analysed by investigators suggests the number of
terrorists could have been fewer than thought.

Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab, who claimed responsibility for the attack at t the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, KenyaPhoto: AP

By Mike Pflanz, Nairobi

11:19AM BST 02 Oct 2013

Some of the remains pulled from the mall’s collapsed supermarket were so badly damaged by fire that DNA sampling will be needed to identify them.

It is not yet known if they are attackers or their hostages, or whether they died from gunshots or shrapnel, or when the rear of the building fell in on itself on the last day of the four-day siege.

The official death toll from the terror attack, blamed on Somalia’s al-Shabaab Islamists, remains at 61 civilians, six soldiers and five attackers, but 39 people are still registered as missing.

The al-Qaeda-allied group warned of new attacks, in a statement that said its fighters were “determined to intensify attacks inside Kenya” and threatened to turn the country’s cities “into graveyards”.

Blood relatives of those missing gathered this morning at a Nairobi mortuary, where DNA samples were taken to help doctors confirm whether their loved ones are among the bodies recovered from the shopping centre.

“It’s very hard to tell, the bodies are degraded due to fire and the delays in us receiving them,” said one senior official working on the investigations. “We are using DNA and dental records, where they exist. It will take time.” Detectives and anti-terror officers on Wednesday viewed new CCTV footage from inside the mall and said that only four attackers could be seen.

Initially it was believed that three teams totalling 10 to 15 terrorists took control of Westgate at lunchtime on September 21, and controlled its four floors for close to 80 hours.

Eyewitness accounts told to The Daily Telegraph have however failed to provide matching descriptions of more than six individuals.

The full number of attackers may never be known, amid reports that some may have fled the shopping centre during the chaos of the siege’s early hours, or through an access tunnel that led to a sewer.